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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22921654">Hi, can I help you?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113'>Zoya113</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Just time skips constantly, Passage of time</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:48:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,260</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22921654</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Paul is in love with the barista at Beanies, and he’s perfectly content to play the waiting game because he certainly doesn’t have the guts to make the first move</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Paul Matthews/ Emma Perkins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>111</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hi, can I help you?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hi, can I help you?” </p><p>“Just a black coffee, thanks.” </p><p>The coffee is mediocre, but the barista is pretty. Really pretty. Paul thinks she’s the prettiest woman he’s ever seen.</p><p>Short, barely scraping five feet, he notices how she has to stretch up to see comfortably past the register, and how her face scrunched up in concentration whenever someone starts off with a long order. </p><p>She’s always working. He comes back just for her, and she’s always here. He’s a regular now. </p><p>“Hi, can I help you?”</p><p>“Just a black coffee, thanks.”</p><p>Every single day on repeat, and when he comes in on Wednesday on his break his dull day becomes so colourful, like she has all the stars in the sky in her eyes. She’s so beautiful. And Paul can’t do anything but stare and give his regular order. He’ll never make a move and part of him knows it. He’s content to play the waiting game, he just wished it wasn’t so long. </p><p>“Just a black coffee, thanks,” its like that for days until without warning he’s an official regular.</p><p>“Hi, black coffee, right?” She clicks her fingers with a smirk that only stretches across one cheek. She seems so happy to remember, and maybe it’s because he’s smiling like a fool. </p><p>That doesn’t always happen, sometimes he’ll come in and get the standard ‘how can I help?’ Like they’re strangers again. It brings his whole world crashing down but he can’t be mad at this beautiful woman even if he wanted. </p><p>“Hi, just a black coffee, thanks,” he tips before she even addresses him. </p><p>“Large, right? Figured,” she shoots a smile at the tip jar and then gives the same one to him, a slight shrug of her shoulders before she begins working at the machines, serving up the same drink he’s been getting for months now. </p><p>“Large black coffee?” She starts when he gets to the counter. </p><p>It makes his heart flutter, he’s almost too bashful to nod. “Yes, thank you. Busy day?” He’s so proud he managed to get something out so calmly like that. </p><p>“Eh. Not busy for this place. Good day for you, man?” </p><p>“No, quiet so far,” and she hands him his coffee and the moment passes, but he clings to it for so long he can barely sleep. It’s like an explosion of sunshine whenever he remembers her smile and the sound of her chuckle, and he clutches his blankets tight between his palms as he shakes his hands to burn off the excitement. </p><p>“Hey! Black coffee!” She grins as he gets to the counter. The shop is essentially empty today besides an old lady in the corner, sipping her tea loudly. </p><p>“Yep, that’s me,” he laughs anxiously. </p><p>“Someone came up today in the same suit as you, threw me totally off balance when they asked for a latte. I was like what?” She’s laughing at her own joke. Oh my god. She’s so cute. The way her shoulders shake with her and her lips curl up to show off her teeth. He can’t look away. He wishes he knew her name.</p><p>“Hahah,” he laughs. What can he say? He doesn’t know. He wishes he did. </p><p>When he comes in the next week half an hour later than usual, the shop is completely empty. Maybe this should be his new time. </p><p>“Oh! I thought you weren’t coming in today!” She steals a look at the clock. “The usual?” </p><p>“Yeah.” He’s a usual. A regular. She recognises his suit and his drink and his schedule. They’re practically already dating, right? Apparently not. Ted calls him a pussy in the break room because he won’t give her his number. </p><p>“I’m actually just about to go on break, you just caught me,” she smiles like she’s relieved when he comes in the next day. </p><p>“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to hold you up,” does she hate him now? </p><p>“All good! Black coffee is a quick drink. Give me two seconds.” She jumps straight to making it but lingers half way through like she’s stretching out the time, or maybe he’s imagining it. She hands it over but doesn’t quite let go, and leans over the counter with her head in her palm, chin titled up towards him. “Hey, you’re on break too, right? </p><p>“Oh yeah, but I’m just heading back now. Sorry. I’ll get out of your hair.” Once more, when he ends up confessing the story to Ted he learns through blunt honesty he was being flirted with. He doesn’t believe it. How could a girl like her want to flirt with him? He can barely get two sentences out at a time. He’s been relieved from day one when she learnt his coffee order, it means half the time he doesn’t have to risk saying it out loud and messing it up.</p><p>“Hey! Black coffee, yeah?” She speaks to him before he speaks to her, and when he nods she holds out a cup. “I knew you’d come on time.” </p><p>On time? Was she expecting him? He gets his drink and she tells him she’ll see him tomorrow. </p><p>One day he comes in and there’s a long line. She’s busy, too busy for banter, but when she asks him if she can help she does it with a knowing, cheeky smile, her hands already moving towards the pitcher.</p><p>Ted tells him to make the first move. Invite him to Beanies so he can make it for him. Paul won’t. The barista is just for him, it’s like his own slice of independence from everyone at work because no one knows what they have. Ted tells him they don’t ‘have’ anything. She’s being paid. And then he spends the next four months wondering why Paul didn’t invite him along to Beanies. </p><p>“I see you around here all the time, don’t I?” She says one day. Their fingers brush when she hands him his cup and he almost doesn’t want to take it from her.</p><p>Ted tells him he’s reading into it too much. Bill and Charlotte are invested in their love story, Melissa wants one of her own. He sees Mr Davidson kissing his wife goodbye when she drops him off at work, and a very embarrassed part of him pictures the same future between himself and the barista. He doesn’t even know her name. He will one day. She means too much to him to give up. Will he make the first move? Maybe. Probably not. He’s in love, but that doesn’t make him brave - it just makes him sweaty and flustered. He’ll wait. He’ll wait forever if he has to, and the pay off will be worth it. </p><p>“Hey,” he grins when he walks in one sunny afternoon, marvelling at Emma’s effortlessness over the machines and how the sunlight captures her so perfectly, highlighting the freckles on her cheeks and the shine in her eyes as she sees him.</p><p>“Hey,” she pauses just for him, bringing his world to a halt as she always has. She leans across the counter, head in hands as she slides his drink over the counter. <br/>“Still hot. You’re three minutes late today, Paul,” she ribs, rolling her eyes. “You almost missed the start of my break.”</p><p>He’s flustered. He’s always flustered, but this time she laughs out loud and he isn’t embarrassed about it. “Thanks, Emma.” </p><p>“No problem.” She stands on the tips of her toes to lean past the register and grab his tie, pulling him down for a kiss. “See you at home.”</p>
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